Your child is turning 18: what happens with their NDIS plan?

If your child has an NDIS plan and is turning 18, they’ll be encouraged to become responsible for managing their plan if they can.

If your child can’t manage their NDIS plan on their own when they turn 18, you’ll need to organise permission to keep helping them. It’s a good idea to talk to your NDIS contact about this before your child turns 18.

How to prepare your child for managing their own NDIS plan

Early preparation gives your child opportunities to learn and practise skills for managing their own NDIS plan.

If you start preparing your child early and help your child build skills over time, you can see where your child might need support. You can include this support in your child’s NDIS plan.

Skills for managing an NDIS plan after turning 18

• Setting goals and identifying supports for their plan
• Choosing NDIS providers
• Communicating with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and health professionals
• Self-advocating and making informed decisions
• Using NDIS support budgets as well as general budgeting
• Organising information about their plan – for example, keeping invoices and reports

How to build basic skills for managing NDIS plans (5-11 years)

You might be able to start building your child’s skills for managing their NDIS plan when your child is still at primary school.

Tips for helping kids aged 5-11 years build skills

• Talk with your child about their goals, and encourage your child to make choices. For example, if your child’s goal is to make new friends, you could make a list of clubs or activities together and help your child choose one. You might be able to use visual supports to help your child choose.
• Involve your child if you’re interviewing new support workers. For example, your child could think of questions to ask.
• Involve your child in NDIS plan reassessment meetings. For example, your child could tell their NDIS contact about skills they’ve learned during the last plan.
• Build your child’s confidence to talk about their disability. For example, you could develop a child-friendly explanation of their condition, which your child can practise and use when talking with teachers, other children or parents.
• Help your child develop organisational and record-keeping skills. For example, you could create a computer folder and show your child how to save documents.

Example: helping kids build basic skills for managing NDIS plans

Shara is 9 and uses visual schedules at home. Shara’s mother asks Shara to bring her ‘getting ready for school’ schedule to her next NDIS plan reassessment. This will give Shara the chance to practise communicating with her NDIS contact about what’s working well for her.

How to build specific skills for managing NDIS plans (12-18 years)

As your child gets older, you can help them develop specific skills for managing their NDIS plan. These might include skills for setting goals, choosing services and working with the NDIS.

Setting goals

Encourage your child to think about their:

• short-term goals, like taking part in the local soccer team
• long-term goals, like doing further study or work after they finish school.

Then ask your child about what could help them work towards their goals. For example, if your child’s goal is to increase their independence in the community, they might get a support worker to help them take part in group activities.

Choosing services

• Ask for your child’s opinion on things like spending their NDIS funding and choosing NDIS providers. For example, if you live in a rural or remote area, your child might have the choice between a local general service or a specialist visiting service that costs more.
• Encourage and prepare your child to talk to NDIS providers. For example, if your child identifies as LGBTQ+, they could develop and ask questions to check whether a service is LGBTQ+ friendly.

Working with the NDIS

• Involve your child in their plan reassessments. For example, your child could prepare by thinking about how their supports have helped them work towards their goals. Let your child take the lead during the meeting.
• Explain the options for managing NDIS funds, and talk with your child about which might be best for them. For example, your child might want to use a plan manager so they can have administrative support plus flexibility.
• Help your child learn how to do the administration involved in their plan. For example, show your child how to lodge claims and then get your child to do it while you supervise.

Example: helping young people build specific skills for managing NDIS plans

Nicholas is 16 and he wants to manage his own NDIS plan when he turns 18. Nicholas and his father have been working on Nicholas’s NDIS goals together for a few years, and Nicholas has a good idea of the supports he needs. He also knows where to go for help with his plan. Nicholas is less sure about how to manage the claims side of things.

Nicolas and his father talk to their support coordinator.

Together they decide to include funding for a course on budgeting and bookwork in Nicholas’s plan. They also plan for Nicholas to start submitting his own claims during this time, with his father’s help. This will help Nicholas build his skills over the next 2 years.

How to support your child with managing their plan after turning 18

When your child needs some support

If your child has turned 18 and has a disability that affects their decision-making abilities, they might need help to make decisions and manage their plan. Or your child might just want some support with the process.

You can keep helping your child to manage their plan as long as they want and need you to.

Your child can also get informal support from other family members and friends or formal support from an advocate, a support coordinator, a plan manager or another professional like a psychologist. These people can help your child by:

• explaining information
• helping your child build skills for making decisions
• helping your child choose a service provider.

Your child can give permission for you and other people to talk to the NDIA. In these cases, you and your child’s other support people won’t be able to make decisions for your child, but you can do things like represent your child at a plan reassessment or access information in your child’s plan and advocate for them.

When your child can’t manage their own plan

If your child can’t make decisions for themselves, even with support, they can appoint you or someone else as a nominee to make decisions and manage their NDIS plan for them.

Example: supported decision-making for young people with intellectual disability

Zoe has just turned 18 and has a significant intellectual disability. She can clearly tell people she knows well what she likes and doesn’t like, but she can’t understand complex information about things like NDIS plans, providers, budgets or contracts.

Zoe’s parents talked with her and her support coordinator about decision-making options. Together they agreed that Zoe’s mother will be her plan nominee.

This means Zoe’s mother can keep managing the practical side of Zoe’s plan, while involving Zoe in decisions about the things that matter most to her, like which support workers she spends time with and what activities she does each week.

Practical steps before your child turns 18

Before your child turns 18, a few practical steps can help with shifting the responsibility for managing the NDIS plan to your child:

• At your child’s plan reassessment, consider making changes to the way your child’s plan is managed. For example, if you’ve been self-managing your child’s plan, your child might prefer plan-managing in future. You could also ask for support coordination to be included in the plan, if you think your child needs this.
• Think about how your child will pay for services. For example, if they’re going to self-manage their funds, they’ll need their own myGov account.
• If your child wants to self-manage or plan-manage their NDIS funds, help your child set up a bank account that’s just for these funds.
• Ensure your child has given permission for any people they want to help them manage their plan or asked for any nominees they want.

There are many resources that can help your child develop skills and knowledge to manage their own NDIS plan. For example, you and your child could use the NDIS articles and videos on raisingchildren.net.au and the Easy Read factsheets on the NDIS website.

Looking after yourself

It’s important to help your child to become more independent. But it can also be challenging to let go and trust your child to manage on their own.

Self-care can help you with this transition, as can support from family, friends and professionals like your GP.